Content and application providers often prefer to sell and distribute content on a physical media. They are also interested in a model where such content could be downloaded, stored on a physical media, and consumed on another device which may not have a communication connection to the content or application provider.
Software applications (or simply “applications”) are usually sold with specific licensing terms such as “per seat” (pay for the number of devices where the physical copy can be installed), “per user” (pay for a number of user that can simultaneously use the application), “per subscriber” (pay for the number of subscriber that can access that physical copy), etc. These licensing terms may also apply to multimedia content such as music, video, wallpaper, games and others.
However such licensing terms are either based on trust and/or require a connection to a server. For example, a typical “per seat” license uses a license key but there is no control on how many times the license key is used. And before using an application or content on a second device there is usually no control over removal of such software application and content from the first device. This is typically based on trust. Some other systems may rely on Digital Rights Management (“DRM”) technologies instead of trust. But this usually means the license is acquired from a server in the first place. The license could then be transferred to some other devices where the physical copy would be consumed.
Trust-based licensing is typically not used for distributing multimedia content. Multimedia distribution models usually provide unlimited access with copy-protection or a DRM-based system that requires a communication connection with a content or application provider in the first place. This is mostly due to the fact that optical ROM-disks which are commonly used for such distribution cannot easily enable these other models. Moreover, connection to a server is not always available or could generate additional cost. Therefore, there is a need for a device that permits the distribution of content with more advanced licensing models.